Bullish Life: If You Can Take a Dick, You Can Take a Joke, Lady! (Um, No.)

We as a society have become somewhat inured to the “It’s always better when the stripper is crying” brand of humor.

Would straight men like comedy clubs if most of the comics were seven foot tall gay men talking about how it’s hilarious to rape straight men (yeah, yeah, The Onion), but also how stupid straight men are and how gross their dicks are? (I do think the size issue is important — if you’ve spent your whole life aware of the fact that the majority of men can physically overpower you, something in the back of your brain lights the fuck up at even a “hilarious” “fake” threat.)

Let’s re-gender! You know what’s hilarious about a male stripper? When it turns out he’s got two kids at home he’s trying to feed by showing off his body, even though he doesn’t want to. Ha, what a dick.

Here is a list of “Your Dad” jokes that I generated by Googling “list of your mom jokes” and making some simple gender substitutions:

Your dad is so fat his blood type is rocky road.

Your dad is so poor when I rang the doorbell he stuck his head out the window and yelled “Ding dong!”

Your dad’s armpits so stink so bad he put on Right Guard and it went left.

Your dad’s so fat, scientists have declared his ass to be the 10th planet.

Your dad’s so poor he can’t even pay attention!

Your dad’s so poor he chases the garbage truck with a shopping list.

Your dad is so fat when we were having sex I rolled over 9 times and I was still on the motherfucker.

Your dad is so ugly your Grandma threw him on the street and was charged for littering.

Your dad is like a bowling ball — gets picked up, fingered, thrown in the gutter, and comes back for more.

How do you feel about these? I guess if you hate fat people and poor people, you might like these jokes. But overall, this small selection of “your dad” jokes paints a picture of a man so economically beaten down that he is involved in an exploitative sexual relationship. That makes me kind of sad.

You know, one of the funniest things I have ever seen was when my university hired some terrible comic for a show during first year orientation, and he started telling some of the most sexist, racist jokes I have ever heard.

I think there was something about murdering your wife and leaving her body by the side of the road and how all football players were black and something about how Canada didn’t have Burger King (which a – isn’t funny, and b – we totally have Burger King – literally a block away from the school.)

All of us orientation leaders were fresh out of ULTRA SENSITIVITY / POLITICAL CORRECTNESS TRAINING to respond to every type of oppression that ever existed, and the frosh were, well, Canadian, so you can imagine the deafening silence (well, polite Canadian faux-laughter) that met all these jokes.

I eventually started to laugh my ass off, just because it was so absurd that the organizers had picked this dude to do a routine for us. And it was great to see this douche get shot down.

Also: You talk REALLY fast. Dear God.

Alison

I have to agree with the talking too fast. I missed half of what you said, which seemed like it would have been interesting and funny.

I have already been blasted by male Tosh fans in comments on Buzzfeed, but my point there was valid. (plus, they are clearly immature jerks.) Rape jokes aren’t funny if they are about someone *being* raped, or about threatening rape.

I saw a clip of Ricky Gervais doing ‘rape jokes’ where I giggled a little, but his point was about the *rapist*, and what kind of society have we become that the British Gov. has to put out commercials saying that rape is wrong. I only giggled because it was also sad. The point is there can be humor in such jokes that most people can relate to, but when you joke about someone BEING raped, you’re an a** and the people who laugh are callous idiots.

kjon

That also seemed to be the gist of a jezebel article on rape jokes (Lindy West, maybe?) last week.

epilonious

On one hand, yes rape jokes are bad and can hurt people especially women faced with “the lap dance is always better when the stripper is crying” society.

On the other hand, I don’t really follow Tosh… but have to hear about him All The Time because he has successfully trolled the English speaking world. And not the standard “I am living under a bridge trying to get your goat” troll but a full on “trolling for comments” make the discourse in the US explode over whether some jackass should be allowed to make jackass comments in public (short answer: yes) and should people who heckle notoriously raunchy comments expect to be treated horribly (short answer: yes) and should women worry about and/or dump the guy who repeatedly tries prove to them how awesomely funny and important Tosh is (short answer: yes).

I’m in “I hope people get over his behavior sooner than later” mode.

Jane

I find it funny that so many men, with their oh-so-fluffy-and-warm 1% chance of being raped, are preaching to feminists (20% chance) that we’re the ones that need to “lighten up.” Easy for you to say. Do you think that if men faced our odds, we’d just be brushing them off? Also, if Tosh fans know he’s offensive, why are they so upset that people are offended?

Mandy

I think I may be the only woman I know who has been raped, molested, & sexually assaulted who actually finds Tosh hysterical. I prefer to laugh at the dark things in the world, instead of letting myself be filled with anger & bitterness. If I got cancer, I would make jokes about my hair falling out or losing my tits. If I ever let bad things change my outlook on life, instead of employing dark humor, I feel like I might as well just give up all together.

Ellie

I totally agree Mandy. First off, I think humor is a much healthier coping mechanism than many other alternate possibilities. Plus, I like the control I have over the situation. I’m making JOKES about awful things that happened to me!
I do think rape jokes can be funny. And I love Daniel Tosh. That said, I don’t think his comment to the woman in the audience was a joke, not because I didn’t find it funny (I didn’t), but it lacked the elements that can make even those cringe worthy topics funny. I don’t think he threatened her, or invited guys to come rape her, but he singled her out because of her opinion on a delicate and likely very personal subject. And he did it in a non funny way that affected her on a personal level.
I have been called out by him in front of a much larger audience. He basically said he’d never date me because of my age (a few years younger than him), and went on to find some girl who was 19 to talk to. I was not insulted, and looked at it more like he made himself the butt of the joke…yup, you’re the stereotypical pathetic guy who is still single, trying desperately to hold on to your youth, and pining for girls half your age.
To each their own.

Sam

1) I love you for writing this article.
2) I think rape jokes are never funny. I have a few male friends whom I’ve also been able to convince this of, and they not only don’t make rape jokes ever, they also call out other people for doing so. Unfortunately, I get called a wet blanket whenever I do so (not that that stops me…but it’s still upsetting), but when a guy does it, it makes whomever is making the joke think twice–which is fucking stupid and sexist, but still. Convincing our male friends to do that can actually help quite a bit.
3) I saw a comedian from my college perform on campus a couple years ago and ended up walking out because he made so many rape jokes. Fortunately, nobody thought he was funny so he was rewarded for his indecency with a silent, cold room…but I still wanted to vomit in all his shoes.

Sam

Oh and 4) I think the fact that so many male comedians seem like lonely drunks has something to do with why so they hold animosity towards women. Being miserable makes you want others to be miserable (yeah, yeah, I know I sound like a first grade teacher). I don’t think I’ve ever known a miserable-seeming female comedian, and I’ve met quite a few! Their humor is usually more self-deprecating, less cruel, and more clever.

Mia

I think I have a major girl crush on you from the other side of the world. I love your writing & this article is no exception.

Amanda White

As an aside, it actually was pretty usual to yell out “Your solo sucks!” (in Italian) in opera houses, but that was in Italy and like the 17th century.

Actually, they do still sort of do it a lot there. But the houses are so much bigger now that they mostly just go BOOOOO because you’d never understand them.